From the Pulpit, a Pastor Takes Aim at Tacoma's Mayor
Rev. Dr. Dean Richmond Babbitt compares Mayor Orr to a Roman official who looked the other way, jeers at 'brass-buttoned police' and warns the mayor he could be prosecuted for letting the law be broken.
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Tacoma, Feb. 3. — Special. — In a sensational sermon preached before the congregation of Trinity church tonight, the Rev. Dr. Dean Richmond Babbitt severely arraigned Mayor Orr for alleged non-performance of his official duties and connivance at wrong doing and flagrant violations of the law. Dr. Babbitt compared Mayor Orr to the Roman deputy Gallio, before whom the apostle Paul was brought, and who on that occasion declared his disregard for the condition of things in Rome. Dr. Babbitt said that although the mayor might be honest and worthy, yet he was negligent of the moral welfare of this community. When, with dramatic emphasis, Dr. Babbitt quoted the law to show that if the mayor intentionally permitted the laws to be violated he was liable to prosecution, a profound sensation was created. He referred with bitter sarcasm to the "brass-buttoned police who strut proudly by the places where they cannot but know that criminality exists." The sermon created a big sensation, and has excited no little amount of comment.
“"Brass-buttoned police who strut proudly by the places where they cannot but know that criminality exists."”
A minister using Sunday's pulpit to accuse a mayor of letting vice flourish and his police of looking the other way is a template that still plays out whenever a city fights over law enforcement, corruption and moral reform. The charge that officials 'connive at' violations they are sworn to stop remains a favorite arrow in the quiver of civic critics.
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